"Behind Winston's back the voice from the telescreen was still babbling away about pig-iron and the overfulfilment of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live -- did live, from habit that became instinct -- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized. " -1984

The camera is there to supposedly identify the viewer and customize the selection of programs to that person's tastes. Why? Just ask the viewer to sign in like on a computer. You can even use a thumbscanner on the remote if you don't want your kids hacking your password.

Rumor has it the new Xbox will require you to have Kinect set up in order for the system to function, and Microsoft was working on very similar deals with content providers that Intel seems to have worked out (a-la-carte, on-demand, etc.)

blahpers:Why the bloody butt-fark would anybody willingly put one of these in their home? Have people gone insane?

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Most of the big players are working on these. Microsoft will have the Kinect able to identify people on their next system. And they will also be able to make 3D models of your house and you. Give it 10 years and most people will have cameras in their house watching them, and they will want them.

I will have to make sure that before I hit power on my remote control, I drop trow, turn around, bend over, and place my chocolate starfish so close to the camera they can smell my stink nuggets. I wonder what kind of recommendations my browneye would get, hmm.

jfivealive:I will have to make sure that before I hit power on my remote control, I drop trow, turn around, bend over, and place my chocolate starfish so close to the camera they can smell my stink nuggets. I wonder what kind of recommendations my browneye would get, hmm.

BizarreMan:jfivealive: I will have to make sure that before I hit power on my remote control, I drop trow, turn around, bend over, and place my chocolate starfish so close to the camera they can smell my stink nuggets. I wonder what kind of recommendations my browneye would get, hmm.

Jersey Shore or Honey Boo Boo

hah. If they catch a glimpse of my underwear, they may just suggest 'The thin red line'.

jfivealive:I will have to make sure that before I hit power on my remote control, I drop trow, turn around, bend over, and place my chocolate starfish so close to the camera they can smell my stink nuggets. I wonder what kind of recommendations my browneye would get, hmm.

One day, you will be charged as a sex offender for doing something like that.

I mean, if it's used to do shiat like count the people in the room for DRM purposes, I'll have an issue with it, and I'd probably turn it off at that point if I had one, but largely I like the notion of having the hardware for gesture controls on everything, lot more sanitary than everyone handling a physical controller all the time. And, similarly, I kinda like the idea of using facial recognition to allow bypass of the login procedure, that seems pretty convenient. Assumably if I get an eye injury and have to wear a patch or something there will be a software bypass I can click, it's not like they'd just make it randomly lock me out forever.

I mean, I unplug my webcam when not in use as much as the next guy, but there's such a thing as letting your paranoia get in the way of basic progress.

I mean, if it's used to do shiat like count the people in the room for DRM purposes, I'll have an issue with it, and I'd probably turn it off at that point if I had one, but largely I like the notion of having the hardware for gesture controls on everything, lot more sanitary than everyone handling a physical controller all the time. And, similarly, I kinda like the idea of using facial recognition to allow bypass of the login procedure, that seems pretty convenient. Assumably if I get an eye injury and have to wear a patch or something there will be a software bypass I can click, it's not like they'd just make it randomly lock me out forever.

I mean, I unplug my webcam when not in use as much as the next guy, but there's such a thing as letting your paranoia get in the way of basic progress.

FTA: "Intel will use that to present personalised options and targeted advertising..."

I see things like this becoming more and more common...which will then lead to changes. Already mentioned upthread is user specific DRM. Then will come the "well five people are watching this, so it will be $x time 5 to watch it." Then come the examples where it will be used in a court case to prove someone was somewhere at sometime. Before you know it, they will be required to watch any tv.

It sounds silly and tin foil hatty, but if someone had said 15 years ago that you would pay $80 a month for a mobile phone you would say that it was crazy and no one would do that. Along the same lines 15 years ago if you said that nearly everyone would willingly carry around a device that can be used to track where you are it would be crazy talk.

Quaker:FTFA: "...Erik Huggers (VP at Intel Media)... did say that the US isn't ready for entirely à la carte options and that Intel will be selling bundles of content..."[www.addictinginfo.org image 494x500]

He's right, because people have no idea how the current model works. You want Comedy Central. That's $12 a month. Many people will end up paying roughly the same for cable (or potentially more) with fewer channels.

mjbok:He's right, because people have no idea how the current model works. You want Comedy Central. That's $12 a month. Many people will end up paying roughly the same for cable (or potentially more) with fewer channels.

Yes...that's called choice. I dropped TV altogether after DirecTV made me pay $70/mo to watch two channels...plus another 900 I never watched. Fark that. Now I have Amazon Prime and Netflix streaming and DVD for less than half the price.

Back in the mid-80s i worked for AT&T, customer service 800 number. Some crazy lady in Jacksonville kept calling in (100s of times a day), saying her husband worked for the government and had installed a device on her TV that allowed her to see who she was talking to on the phone. I never talked to her, always wanted to. Was going to ask if she liked my haircut. She actually got her phone taken out because she wouldn't stop calling us.

yellowcat:A Terrible Human: In other news more of my paranoid delusions are becoming true.

Back in the mid-80s i worked for AT&T, customer service 800 number. Some crazy lady in Jacksonville kept calling in (100s of times a day), saying her husband worked for the government and had installed a device on her TV that allowed her to see who she was talking to on the phone. I never talked to her, always wanted to. Was going to ask if she liked my haircut. She actually got her phone taken out because she wouldn't stop calling us.

Wasn't you was it?

Considering I was born in 89 no,but I have dealt with crazy people before and holy shiat that would be annoying.